Category Archives: Author Spotlight

As part of her blog tour, Rachel Zolock, has written the following blog post about her work and experiences with the paranormal and how it influenced the writing of Medium Wave. Make sure to tune in for my review of Medium Wave next week. continue to read for Rose Zolock’s post:

Let me begin by telling you the story of Kitty. This, a true story, was told to me recently by a retired District Nurse, working in the small, close knit villages of the Pennines. The nurse was looking after Kitty, who was terminally ill and who had returned to the family home to die. The nurse’s job was to keep her comfortable and as pain free as possible.

Kitty didn’t want her husband near her. When he came into her bedroom, she shouted at him to leave. The nurse grew disturbed by this behaviour, knowing that Kitty didn’t have long and feeling that it would be better to be peaceful as she neared the end of her life. Kitty beckoned her nurse to her and told her, her eyes bright with anger, her husband had dallied with every woman in the valley. She hated him, despising his grief now she was dying.

When Kitty passed a couple of days later, the nurse went to lay the body out and prepare her for the attentions of the undertaker. She washed Kitty, put on a clean night dress on her and brushed her hair while the family were grieving in the parlour downstairs. The nurse placed Kitty’s hands, folded, on her chest. The left hand flopped down. The nurse gently placed it back. Again it flopped down. She tried yet again: the hand would not lie in place. The nurse then got a piece of gauze and tied both thumbs together and arranged it so it was hidden by the hands as they were folded on Kitty’s chest. As the nurse stood up to smooth the sheet around Kitty’s lifeless body, the left hand flung itself outwards with such force, her wedding ring flew off. The nurse heard it clatter onto the floor. Kitty’s left hand flopped over the bed, the deep indentation of that ring marking her now dead flesh. The nurse knew that ring had been worn on her finger for years and had not been loose. In death as in life, it seemed Kitty wanted rid of the connection to the man who had betrayed her.

There is an intimacy in listening to the stories of those who believe they have experienced the supernatural. I have been meeting them and visiting places with a history of unexplained phenomena and collecting these stories – like Kitty’s – for a long time.

From my perspective, I focus on what it is about that particular person at that particular point in their life to try and see what makes them truly believe something exists beyond our 21st Century world. Underscore it with an element of fear – I have heard some very frightening stories –and I think most of us enjoy the moment of terror from the comfort of our warm armchair. Whether we’re reading a book of horror stories, hearing them being broadcast or watching something unfold, dark and sinister, late at night, on our television screens, we enjoy the frisson of fear that these tales provide.

In my novel Medium Wave, I have used some of those stories and experiences to shape a narrative which I hope will lead you to make your own mind up about the supernatural. The story is based on research I’ve undertaken and the narrative centres on real objects or places which have a history of paranormal activity. I then wove these into a story which will take the reader on a journey into a very dark destination.

I have met psychics, mediums, ghost hunters, UFO abductees and even one man convinced the real Men in Black were watching him. I spent one evening in a crypt with 42 interred bodies and a dozen ghost hunters where tables were tipped, surrounded by those eager to feel the table move as their fingers lay lightly on its surface. Their electronic sensors bleeped, much to the joy of the assembled people who said it was proof that ‘energies’ were present. One lady was somewhat overcome and had to be led away to be comforted. I have recorded stories of a family driven out of their home by a poltergeist and another of a man who said he and his twin regularly saw a plague doctor in their house when they were eight years old. The house, as it turned out, stood on the site of a plague pit.

These stories – unexplained – are truly believed by those who tell them. My mind is open and I do not judge the story teller. Personally, I have yet to experience any direct contact with the paranormal. In Medium Wave, I explore from the perspective of ‘what if’ and take you by the hand so you can decide. Combine this with questions of faith and add examples of how the media in can manipulate how you perceive a story, I will let you make your own mind up.

One word of warning, however, keep the lights on and beware the radio…

As a part of The blog blitz for The Elf King by Lorraine Hellier arranged by Rachel Random resources, I have below a Q&A with Lorraine. Please keep an eye out for the book review for The Elf King (publishing tomorrow).

First, would you please tell us a little about yourself.

I was born in Birmingham (UK) and after leaving school I pursued a career in Dentistry. I worked for the NHS mainly with children, special needs children and adults and those with phobias.
I now live in a Staffordshire village, overlooking the Trent and Mersey canal.
I am an avid reader and love to travel. I like to support and encourage new children’s authors.

What was your inspiration for writing The Elf King?

Prior to my visit to New Zealand I re-read “The Hobbit” by Tolkien which inspired me to choose elves as my characters. Also watching a TV documentary on the making of the film “Frozen” gave me the sibling idea but I decided to write about a brother and sister.

The names in The Elf King are quite cute and earth like. How did you come up with these names?

‘Sweet Pea’ as a name for the new Elf King’s sister started my choice of flowers for the female elves and then I thought it balanced to use herbs for the male characters. I did have to research names for the rest of the family and members of their clan.

If you could be invited to dinner by one of your characters, which one would you like to meet and why?

Mother Rose in “The Elf King” and subsequent Elf novels because she possesses a wisdom which as Mother of Elves was highly respected. (I would have chosen Clementine but I don’t want to spoil it for readers by giving her story
away before they read the novel.). Continue reading →

I am happy to say that I got to be part of the blog tour for Andorra Pett and the Oort Cloud Cafe. Below I have a Q&A with the author Richard Dee, who was kind enough to answer my questions. Please keep an eye out for the upcoming review on Wednesday!

What is your favourite childhood book?

Once I learned to read, there was no stopping me. I devoured Enid Blyton, then I moved on to Narnia. I also read a lot of comics and graphic novels back in the day, it’s hard to pick a favourite, I think the Famous Five were the first to give me a love of adventure, particularly because the cast were ordinary people, thrust into unexpected things, having to use their wits to survive.

Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?

Lord of the Rings was a game changer for me, as was Dune. They showed that if you wanted to, you could create a whole world, or even a universe, complete in every detail. Everything worked and had a basis in logic; there was never a point when you couldn’t believe that it was all possible.

What’s your favourite under-appreciated novel? Tell us about it.

That’s tricky; I have to be careful in what I say here. I’m a huge fan of self-published authors, especially the ones that few people have heard of. I champion them whenever I can, people like Helen Hollick, Alison Morton, K.Y. Eden and James Mortain. They put in as much work as any big name author and deserve as much credit. There is so much good writing just under the mainstream

Which book was the first to make you cry?

Fluke, by James Herbert. I was expecting a horror story, what I got was…, well you should read it. I would be very surprised if you were not as moved by it as I was.

What would you think are the most common traps for aspiring writers?

With the rise in self-publishing, it’s easy to think you’ve finished a masterpiece and press publish before it’s really ready. Editing is so important, and you can’t self-edit! So is a proper cover and a good layout with a sensible font.

Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice?

Perhaps you could say that it is, after all, you’re creating a world and you have the power to give life to it and your characters. You can just as easily destroy them as well but that doesn’t mean that I think I’m omnipotent. It’s an ability, like cooking or driving a lorry, you have to remember its limitations and the responsibility that comes with it.

When did you decide to become a writer?

I wrote a short story in 1979, and made it into a novel in 2013, so you could hardly say that it was a thing I rushed into. Life got in the way. When I retired, I kept having ideas and in the end, they got to the stage where I just had to start writing them down. One led to another.

Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?

I changed my surname; I thought that Richard Dee looked better on a book cover. My real name isn’t a secret, it’s just that you can hide behind the other one, to a certain extent.

Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

It would be very easy to jump on a bandwagon. I’d rather try to be a bit different, even if it means that it takes longer to get noticed. At the end of the day, I’d rather set the trend after next than hang on the coat-tails of the last big thing.

I have noticed that you write both standalone books and series. Which do you enjoy writing more and why?

I never meant to write series. That came about from reader’s comments, asking for more adventures or explanations. As I started to expand my stories, they almost took on a life of their own. The characters develop and you can see what they could have done, or will do. It’s great to think that people enjoyed a book enough to want to know more, that the characters engaged with them in some way. I do enjoy starting new projects, separate from my ongoing ones. But with all the sequels, prequels and spin-offs, it’s getting harder to find the time for new stuff.

Do you believe in writer’s block? If so, what is your go to advice to overcome it.

I have several projects on the go at any one time. If ideas dry up for one, I switch to another. Illness seems to empty my mind of ideas, if I get a cold I can’t write.

If you could give younger self advice about writing, what would it be?

Don’t delay, I wish I’d done more writing when I had the time. I would be so much better at it by now.

Did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

I enjoyed the challenge of completing the first book so much and it opened a dam in my head. I started getting more ideas and I realised that I had to get organised to make the most of them. So it changed my habits, I carry a notebook around for plot suggestions, I listen to conversations in coffee shops and I pay more attention to the things I see.

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

To be honest, I don’t plot my novels in detail before I begin writing and I don’t research until I have to! I get an idea for a plot and just start writing, creating the best setting to amplify the plot as I go. I try to make the setting another character, with its own emotions and relevance to whatever else is going on.

Research happens as I need to justify the things in the story. Everything I create is based on a known fact; I just expand or modify it to fit into the narrative. In the case of my future universes, this means starting from a truth but blurring the point where reality and my imagination meet. In the case of my Steampunk novels; I tried to see how society could thrive without oil or electricity and where it all led.

In both cases, the results can be surprising. Once you get started on research, it’s a fascinating way to spend time. There is so much serendipity and unintended consequence in science; it’s amazing how we have got to this point. And who knows where we will end up?

Did you find it difficult to write from a female perspective in Andorra Prett and the Oort Cloud Cafe? Do you find it different from writing from a male’s perspective?

It seemed like a fun idea to try and write from a different point of view. It was a challenge and a way of stretching myself. To be honest, having a wife and three daughters helped me tremendously; parts of all of their personalities are in Andorra. They helped me see things from a female perspective.

How do you select the names of your characters?

I try and match the names up to the personalities, to give you clues as to what sort of people they might be. Having said that, you can also give good guys bad names, just to confuse matters. At the basic level, they have to be easy to remember.

Is there any part or scene you edited out of Andorra Prett and the Oort Cloud Cafe, that you wish you had included?

Andorra Pett was originally a short story, about a person who was running away from it all and went to the edge of civilisation. People suggested that I extend it into a novel. When I started expanding the short story, I had a whole load of ideas for things that Andorra could get up to. I soon realised that there were far too many adventures for one book, once again I seemed to have created a series. The sequel, Andorra Pett on Mars, is written and due to be published in April. The third book, Andorra Pett and her Sister is half written andwill follow. I also have an idea for Andorra Pett takes a Break, goodness knows when I’ll get to it though.

What was the most difficult scene for you to write?

Action scenes are tricky, you need to pare the writing down to make it all happen at speed. At the same time, you need to keep the tension and realism. You have to make sure that you keep only the important things and ditch the waffle. It’s no good if the description of a thirty-second fight lasts for twenty pages.

Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

There are a lot of bits of information that allude to the second and subsequent books, they will make sense when you read them. I also scatter clues and red herrings in the background, in throwaway remarks or actions. Even though I think that I know where they all are, occasionally a reader will praise me for something that I didn’t realise I had said or got a character to do. Or they will ascribe a meaning to a section that I hadn’t considered. It’s rather strange to be complimented for one of those.

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

I love my readers, they may only be a small group (so far), but they are loyal and very complimentary. It’s thanks to them that I have series and their reviews that keep me going. They demand sequels and more information. One reader even has a crush on a particular character. It first I wondered if I wasn’t giving them enough, now I can see that I wasn’t giving them too much.

At the end I would very much thank you for taking the time to answer the questions and for the opportunity to review your book.

My website is www.richarddeescifi.co.uk, there are lots of freebies, extracts from all my work and a new post about writing, either mine or someone else’s, every week.

Meet Andorra Pett; with her trusty sidekick, she’s taken over a derelict café. On a mining station. It just happens to be orbiting Saturn!She’s hoping for a fresh start, away from all the drama of her old life. It’s a chance to relax and start again in a place where nobody knows anything about her or her past.But the café holds a secret, and secrets have a habit of coming out; whether you want them to or not. And being accident prone doesn’t help. The more you try to pretend that you know what’s going on, the worse it gets.Andorra’s plans for peace and quiet get lost amid the revelations and skulduggery and she soon realises that the fate of the whole station lies in her hapless hands.In space, you can still trip over your feet; the question is, will you land upright?

A native of Brixham in Devon, Richard Dee’s family left Devon when he was in his teens and settled in Kent. Leaving school at 16 he briefly worked in a supermarket, then went to sea and travelled the world in the Merchant Navy, qualifying as a Master Mariner in 1986. Coming ashore to be with his growing family, he used his sea-going knowledge in several jobs, including Marine Insurance Surveyor and Dockmaster at Tilbury, before becoming a Port Control Officer in Sheerness and then at the Thames Barrier in Woolwich. In 1994 he was head-hunted and offered a job as a Thames Estuary Pilot. In 1999 he transferred to the Thames River Pilots, where he regularly took vessels of all sizes through the Thames Barrier and upriver as far as H.M.S. Belfast and through Tower Bridge. In all, he piloted over 3,500 vessels in a 22-year career with the Port of London Authority. Richard was offered part time working in 2010, which allowed him to return to live in Brixham, where he took up writing and blogging. He retired in 2015, when he set up and ran a successful Organic bakery, supplying local shops and cafés. The urge to write eventually overtook the urge to bake but Richard still makes bread for friends and family. Richard is married with three adult children and two grandchildren.

Fort his months Author spotlight I’ve gotten to interview Samie Sands. I reviewed her book, Forgotten, in May, and Samie Sands wrote a guest post which can help aspiring authors kick-start their projects, -read it here-. She is the author of the apocalyptic AM13-series, check out her books on GoodReads.

What inspired you to write your first book?

– I read a lot of zombie books, and they always made me wonder how I would survive the apocalypse, which is how Leah – the main character from Lockdown – was born. She started off based on me, but soon took on a life of her own.
She’s a girl-next-door type with none of the necessary skills to survive this horrific situation, which is actual unusual. Most novels in the same genre focus on badass, survivalist types who have something about them that gives them the edge…but most of us aren’t like that. The plot was born around her.

Is there a message in your book series which you’d wish readers would grasp?

– The second book in the AM13 series, Forgotten, is written in a completely different style to Lockdown. It uses the viewpoints of a few characters that have been newly introduced. There’s Ethan – the OCD sufferer who struggles with everyday life, never mind the apocalypse. There’s Alyssa – the overly confident teenager who is certain she can survive and there is the mysterious scientist who’s trying to solve this whole mess.
Some readers have loved this, others haven’t enjoyed it so much and I would just like people to see that I try to bring something a little unique to my books, something to make them a bit of a different read.

I know this might be a little far-fetched, but are experiences based on someone you know or events in your own life?

– The events, definitely not – yet anyway! But as I said, Leah started off based on me – but didn’t end up that way – and Alyssa is based on someone I know who is also convinced she will have no trouble surviving the zombie apocalypse.

Do you have an outline for the rest of the AM13 series?

– I am currently working on the third and final book. This again will have something unique about it, something to make it stand out in the series – and hopefully in the genre. That is coming soon.

When you’re writing, do you follow a special schedule?

– I don’t have a schedule as such. Like most writers, I have a lot of other commitments so it all depends on time and inspiration. If my ideas have run dry or I’m not in the mood, there is absolutely no point in me writing because it’ll only have to be scrapped and redone.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

– This isn’t so much a quirk, but I always have to have a notebook with me because of my busy life, ideas have been forgotten and I don’t want that to happen again!

Do you have any projects outside of AM13?

– I have many short stories in a number of successful anthologies, such as Unleash the Undead and The Forgotten Places Project. Once this final book in the series is complete, I have a lot of new ideas to work on too.

What books/authors have influenced your writing?

– I love the zombie/infection books of Adam Baker. His books are also very unique and gritty too. I love the way his writing style drags you into the plot from the very first page.

Who is your favourite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

– In other genres, I really love the dystopian novels by Gemma Malley – she has a great way of capturing personalities., the comedy books by Lindsey Kelk – you can’t help but laugh out loud at her storylines and The Noughts and Crosses series by Malorie Blackman because their commentary on history and racism is really thought-provoking.

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

– I have always been a big reader and my interest in writing has always been there. It’s only recently I gained the confidence to actually give it a go!

What was one of the most surprising things you learned while writing your books?

– One of the biggest things I have enjoyed is writing the books I’d like to read. Bringing a plot to life with that in mind has worked surprisingly well for me.

What were the challenges in bringing your books to life?

My biggest challenge was, and still is, time. There just aren’t enough hours in the day, and sometimes they just aren’t the right ones. I always seem to be chaotically busy when I have the best ideas!

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

– I get a lot of feedback from readers on social media and via my street team. Luckily I’ve had mostly really lovely comments so I’ve been very lucky. People are very excited about the upcoming release of the third book.

What do you think makes a good story?

– A plot that leaves you thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading.

CI have decided to have a monthly author spotlight. During the spotlight post I will highlight an author and their work. The monthly spotlight will only feature authors that I have read. Ideally it will feature an interview or a guest post from the author.
To kick off my first Spotlight I have gotten an interview with Author Kimberly Loth, I reviewed her book Bittersweet earlier in late March, and that book is the reason I chose to feature my interview with her as the first Author Spotlight.
Bittersweet is a book that hit very close to home because of the fact that it deals with suicide, which I have personal experience with. The book is right by its name: it is very bittersweet. It makes you want to cry, but then you smile through the tears.
Half the proceeds of Bittersweet goes to charities that work help find answers and support those who are left behind. You can pick up your copy from Amazon.co.uk(Disclaimer: I do not get paid for link clicks)

First Kimberly, I would like to thank you very much for doing this interview. And before I start asking questions, would you please tell us about your books?

– I write all kinds of YA, but all my books have a romantic bent. The first series I released (The Thorn Chronicles) is a YA Paranormal series about a girl who is trapped in a supernatural cult and escapes only to find that the world outside is just as scary. I have the first two books released in that series and the other two will come out later this year.

Bittersweet is a contemporary novel about a girl whose father dies and her adventures in grieving.

I know that “Bittersweet” was a particularly hard book for you to write. When and how did you decide that you had to tell this story?

– After my dad died I knew I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of teenage girl because my relationship with my father was largely developed in my teenage years and he never quite stopped treating me like one. We also spent a great deal of our summers together riding roller coasters so I liked the setting of an amusement park.

You also portray grief very realistically, would you say that you drew upon your own experience?